The Sufi Saga
by FlashFreezer
Summary: Just a Pokémon fanfic that I named the characters after my friends. This is my first time trying this, so I hope it doesn't fail :P
1. It's All About Me

This is a fanfic that I wrote after reading Buwaro's Tales of Flame, so stuff may seem similar. Most of the characters are named after my friends . Pokémon belongs to its rightful owners.

**Chapter 1 : It's all about Me.**

_I leapt from tree to tree in the dense jungle, feeling the wind below the sharp leaves that grew out of the sides of my arms and my tail swinging behind me, perfectly controlled. I was flying! I was free! I was Sceptile! I was…_

...rudely awakened by a veritable giant looming over me, trapping me in his shadow. Obviously, I was rather unperturbed. When you're half a metre tall, pretty much everything tends to do that. Added to the fact that he did that every day…, it wasn't really that terrifying…anymore. Looking up at him, he was still the same fat, shapeless old man with brown fur on his head but nowhere else on his body. Wearing clothes. I shuddered. He reminded me of a gigantic mocha Ditto.

When I first came here, I had recurring nightmares about giant light brown Dittos sitting on me and squashing me with their shapeless bulk. But anyway, back to clothes. Never wore those before, and didn't see what was so special about them anyway, except that all humans seemed to love them so much they were never seen without them. Usually. All in all, nothing much special.

My daily routine would usually consist of being awoken by this giant during my sweet dreams, followed by breakfast of some brown gooey stuff that tasted like a week-old Poffin. Humans really don't know what Pokémon like to eat. Anyway, after that I was pretty much able to do whatever I wanted, within the confines of the compound. Yes, the compound. I was a specimen, being kept there for "somebody", who was never mentioned to me by the fat man. Other humans came and went, but never stayed for long, except for a young male, who wore funky super-tight green coloured clothing that clashed horribly with his brown super tanned skin. Not that green was a bad colour, it just looked bad on him.

Easily being able to eavesdrop on the fat man's conversations whenever I went so inclined, I learnt lots of things:

Don't fiddle with the complex system of steel and buttons that the young boy usually sat in front of whenever he came. I wondered if it ever needed to eat; I had never seen it move.

Don't try to bite the human boy's fingers; the Torchic that lived with me did it once; got his face smacked. Really hard.

Be careful of Clefairy. Seriously, every infant knows that they came from the Moon to steal Pokémon for their alien experiments.

Humans used Pokémon to do their fighting for them. (Mostly, and not that I had any problem with it, fighting was kinda fun sometimes.)

The fat man's name was Professor Birch.

Professor Birch kept us separate from the rest of the Pokémon. There's the "them", and there's the "us". Obviously, we still had contact with them.

The "us", however, was comprised of me and two other Pokémon. I didn't really see why the Professor lumped us together, we weren't even all of the same type! Seriously, what was he thinking. There's a Torchic, this annoying Fire type, a Treecko, and me. Yeah, another Treecko. What did you expect? A Mudkip? Oh please.

From Professor Birch, I gathered that I was "a product of selective breeding". It sounded like a lot of crap to me, but hell, it sounded impressive. Although I didn't know what difference it would make to me. Maybe I knew attacks normal Treecko didn't? I did know more attacks than the other Treecko, but, by Arceus, he was **old**, like Mew-old. However, when I mentioned that to other Pokémon, they would ask me who my parents were. Geez, I lived in a _compound_, for goodness sake. I was brought there as an egg! Did people seriously expect me to know who my parents are while I'm still in the egg?

Anyway, back to the Torchic. Although Fire types were supposed to be our sworn enemy and all, fire burning grass and whatnot, the Torchic and I shared one thing in common : We wanted to be free of the lab. The other Treecko however…well, that old fart just wanted to stay here the rest of his life, doing, well, pretty much nothing. Whoever said old people were wiser must have been old.

The Torchic's name was, imaginatively, Chic. And he was **male**. If I was stuck with a name like that…well, I'd probably change it. Or kill myself.

There was this Tropius who could Fly people from place to place, but he was usually kept separate from us…we could've used him to escape the compound that way. Not that I felt the compound was a bad place, it was just…limiting.

My chance finally came.

Apparantly, young people came to this "laboratory" all the time to take Pokémon. They all looked around the same age, and I thought this was probably some weird tradition. Not that it was the weirdest ever, Dittos had this idea that once a year they had to transform into something else for a whole month just to test their patience and transforming skills. Not fun, especially if it chose something like a stone.

Other Pokémon around me were chosen. Mudkips, Other Treeckos, some guy even chose a Delibird, just because they weren't native to this region, I overheard.

Most recently, just the other day, a Jigglypuff had been by an impressively short human (by human standards anyway). He was, like, only twice my height. That's only about a _metre tall_. He still reached down to pet my head though. That put him instantly on my 'hated things' list. Seriously, don't people know that petting someone else's head is just plain demeaning? (Although, I must say, if I found someone I was taller than, I'd probably do that too.)

That boy and the Jigglypuff looked right together somehow. When I looked at the boy hugging the Jigglypuff and vice-versa, I had to struggle not to gag at the overwhelming… _cuteness_ of it all.

Anyway, it seemed to be that green-tight-clothing boy's turn to pick today. Ruling out the old Treecko, who had went and hidden himself somewhere in a tree and was probably snoozing, he only had two choices. Chic or me. I hoped that it was me. I really wanted to get out.

Chic, standing beside me, tried his best to look adorable and cute, and was shooting puppy-dog (or should I say puppy-bird) eyes at the boy while I was struggling not to gag. What idiot, especially a male, would seriously pick another male Pokémon making gaga eyes at him? Not to mention that Chic was **male**. If he were female maybe I could understand but…


	2. A Zainul Is Born! Or Introduced

Disclaimer, Pokémon obviously belongs to Nintendo, Satoshi Taijiri and their rightful owners. This fanfic is written by me after I read Buwaro on 's Tales of Flame, so some … stuff may be familiar in the beginning.

**Chapter 2 : A Zainul Is Born**

Apparently, the human boy agreed with me : he stared at Chic's puppy-dog(bird) eyes and started edging away, looking disturbed.

"Is there any … _other_ choice?" he asked the Professor.

"Well, there is the other Treecko, but you may find him a bit, ah, _scrappy_. Just look at his tail."

I looked at my tail. Nothing seemed to be wrong with it. Maybe the Professor wasn't such a Professor after all.

"When a Treecko wants to fight, its tail flexes involuntarily. Always. A Treecko's tail is also one of its main physical weapons. Also, you should know that Treecko never back down from a fight. Even if, say, a Rhydon were to glare at him, he would just glare right back. Even while you, I'm sure, would be running away. That's how most Treecko trainers get their Pokémon killed anyway. By leaving them without any commands. Are you really sure you want him?"

_He's got the running away part right anyway._

"Yeah, anything's better than that screwed-up looking Torchic over there."

I doubled over with laughter at that, and the look on Chic's face. "See you later, sucker," I gloated.

"Bleh. Not like you're gonna escape him anyway."

"You know, I bet I could. He doesn't look that strong, I bet a tail to the head would probably knock him out. As long as they don't put me into one of those ball things."

"You know, that must be what that boy's pointing at you right now."

"Oh fu-" I wasn't even allowed to complete my expletive before I was enveloped in red light and fell unconscious.

I woke up in what seemed to be a pleasant forest, lying in a tree. However, as soon as I woke up, I knew this wasn't real. Trees just didn't _smell_ this way, and I couldn't sense any humidity in the air with my tail. Tails are useful. Yeah.

_Crap. So much for escaping. I must be trapped in the ball right now. At least he'll have to let me out soon…but how soon? What if I starve? Or I-"_

I was interrupted from my pleasant pessimistic reverie by a flash of white light all around me. The faux jungle around me had disappeared, to be suddenly replaced by the tall brown boy looming over me, surrounded by a field full of long grass. I looked up. And up. And up. Into that boy's face. In that instant, I knew how to escape him. Already. Yeah. I'm fast.

I waited. And stared up at him. And he stared back down at me.

After about a grant total of five seconds, he finally squatted down so that he was level with my face and broke the silence. "I'm Zainul".

_And I don't care._

"You're my Treecko now."

_Not for long._

My defiance was emanating like an aura that even the idiot could feel. "Let's see...." the Zainul brought out a red box and started pointing it at me. Obviously, I didn't like that, and was preparing to smash it when-

"Treecko. The Wood Gecko Pokémon. Treecko is cool, calm, and collected - it never panics under any situation. If a bigger foe were to glare at this Pokémon, it would glare right back without conceding an inch of ground."

I looked around, looking for the speaker, until I deduced it came from that box. Which took me a grand total of, say, one-twentieth of a second. Yeah. No one ever accused me of being slow.

"Guess the Pokedex was right," Zainul said "These Pokémon really do love to fight."

_I think even twenty years ago Professor Birch would be twice as smart as you will be in fifteen years. _I thought right back.

As though my thought had reached him, he stiffened and stood up, intending to tower over me, as well as showing me a very…_vulnerable_ area, as well as giving me another idea as to how to escape.

As I began to put my master plan into action, I noticed him take out a disc shaped-item from his backpack, and I stared in shock. It was a Technical Machine. Such items were designed to instantly teach a Pokémon a move, and were incredibly rare in the wild, although the weaker ones could be bought from a town called Veilstone, which was apparently quite far away. I had seen a TM only once before, at Professor Birch's laboratory. It had been light blue, with the inscription "TM13-Ice Beam". This one also had a small inscription "TM-84 Nature's Blessing/Natural Gift" on the side.

"Come here now, Treecko, I want to give you this before I give you a name." I was so eager to try out the TM, I willingly went to him and allowed him to affix the disc to my head.

_I look like a retard. This move better be good._

When nothing happened, Zainul removed the disc, examined it one more time, and suddenly whacked my head with it. I was just either going to shout at him or whack his face when the disc suddenly started glowing faintly. In a flash, the disc deactivated, and I suddenly knew how to use _Natural Gift_. Yes, in a _flash_ of _inspiration_, I knew how to use _Natural Gift_.

_I hope I don't have to go through that retarded whacking whenever I want to learn a TM move._

I used Natural Gift. It hardly used any energy at all. I was wondering why, until it struck me that the move weren't doing anything at all. No flash, no beam of energy.

_That's weird._

I was, obviously, ignoring Zainul's cries of "Use it! Use it! Go Treecko! Natural Gift!" I swear, if Natural Gift was working for me, I'd use it on him. 

I was planning to follow through my original plan when I got sidetracked. Again. A slightly overweight guy in all pink showed up right behind Zainul, suprising him so much he almost fell on me. Luckily, (for him) he didn't.

"Let's battle !" the mysterious stranger proclaimed. Yes, he said " "

"Okay! Go Sufi!" Zainul shouted while trying to do a cool Pokéball throwing move. Which failed, naturally, as I was already out of my ball.

_Fail. Wait, _

There was a pause.

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST CALL ME?" I took in what he had called me, and resolved to put my escape plan into action the moment this retarded battle ended.

"Go, Clefabla!" the other guy's eyes seemed to glow momentarily, as a pink, fat, humanoid Pokémon with short hands and small wings emerged.

"Hello."

"You're ugly."

"You're repugnant, abhorrent, disgusting, detestable, hostile, and bellicose" It said in one single breath.

"…" _I don't even know the meanings of half the words that thing just used._

Apparently Zainul didn't even know what attacks I could use, as he was searching his backpack for a damn _book_ in the middle of a battle, so I took things into my own hands. I leaped over to the Clefable, spun around, and smacked its face with my tail.

The Clefable started _crying._ Seriously.

"Oh my gosh! How could you do that to Clefabla!" the Clefable's trainer seemed to be freaking out. "Clefabla! Use Metronome!"

The retarded pink Pokémon, wiping its face, started waving a finger repeatedly, looking like a retard, which it was.

"Oh shit. It's Teleport." I had to hand it to her, she was really calm, even though she was shortly going to be teleporting to an unknown destination.

"Oh no! It's Teleport!" Wow, this trainer sure knew his Pokémon well. Better than Zainul, at any rate, who was still rummaging around in his backpack for the book.

There was a giant flash of light, and the boy and his Clefable were gone, leaving a weird "?" shaped berry in its place, which I picked up. And put it into the space above my tail. Yes, my _tail_.

The bright light finally got Zainul's attention, and he looked up from his backpack just in time to catch my tail with his face. That was rather fun. To make sure he was really unconscious, and to make me feel better, I did that again, hearing the satisfying crunch of his nose as it shattered, blood flowing freely down his face.

I walked off in the direction of the forest, making sure to stamp on his nose, leaving behind a trail of bloody pawprints. Zainul would not regain consciousness until twilight, where he would wake to find himself drenched in blood, and a pack of vicious Poochyena closing in on him. Screams would rend the night.


	3. Salvation

**Chapter 3 : Morbidity**

I walked into the jungle for all of about five minutes before I realised I had absolutely nowhere to go. And I was alone in the jungle, with every predator out for blood after me. Worse, I was basically a piece of singing prey, since the blood from Zainul's nose was still on my paws.

_ Even in unconsciousness that idiot still tries to kill me. Should've whacked him another time._

_"He would've died." _

_ "Like I'm not going to die now. I'm alone in the jungle, filled with Pokémon out for my blood, and I'm going to die tonight while I'm sleeping."_

_ "So don't sleep."_

_ "Then I'll die tomorrow."_

_ "That's your fault. No one ever forced you to escape."_

I hate _myself_. First things first, I washed my paws in the nearest puddle I found. It was all muddy, but better mud than blood. At least wild Pokémon weren't attracted to mud.

As I walked along the jungle, I always stayed away from other Pokémon. It helped that I was, at heart, a jungle Pokémon, making it easier for me to sense when Pokémon were going to come.

Of course, Berries were everywhere. Not all of them were tasty, but they were filling. One big thing plaguing my thoughts : where were all the Pokémon? Not a single berry tree I had seen were guarded by any Pokémon, which they would surely have if they relied on berries for food.

Moving from tree to tree, I leapt onto a high branch and picked off a berry. It was circular and blue. It didn't seem to be poisonous, but you never know. I bit a small piece off. It tasted pretty bland, but I felt rejuvenated instantly. I ate about two more before deciding that I shouldn't stay there any more.

I jumped down the branches and landed on something _squishy_ on the forest floor. I jumped off again, to a low branch and almost gagged at what I found below.

There was a reason why the berry tree had no Pokémon in it. No _living_ Pokémon anyway. Corpses of Kakuna, Pineco, Cherubi and Metapod were all lying down, rotting at the base of the tree, seemingly half-dissolved by some kind of acid, bones, intestines and other internal organs visible in a gooey mess. Luckily I hadn't stepped on the acidified parts. I didn't want to see what any acid remnants would do to my soles.

And the _smell_. Wow. I can't believe that I missed that earlier. Oh yeah, I was moving from tree to tree.

More cautiously now, I moved out from my hiding place as I went in search of a more concealed hiding place, stealthily observing how other Pokémon hunted their prey.

The ways of Shroomish were dastardly, but their effectiveness could not be disputed. They gave anything they saw a puff of Spore before they unleashed a devastating combination of Leech Seed, Stun Spore and Poisonpowder under its skin. They would then watch and wait below piles of rotting leaves and stalk their prey when it woke up until it finally died, then, in true fungi fashion, suck the nutrients from their freshly-dead corpses with Mega Drain.

Ninjask hovered in the trees, swooping down in hit-and-run style to carve up their prey slice by slice before descending to dicing them into small pieces so fast when they stopped moving, that it made the blood flying everywhere seem more like a red mist that splattered everything nearby as they carried the bloody meat back to feed their young.

Even the beautiful Beautifly were fierce and aggressive. They would swoop down and attach their long-pointy-nose things onto another Pokémon. I recoiled in horror as it started sucking all the moisture and nutrients in its body, leaving behind a desiccated corpse that was fought over by other Pokémon and the victors claiming the corpse for themselves, probably for meat…Ew.

I was rapidly finding staying with Zainul to be a more tasteful option by the minute. Not that he'd accept me now, after I'd broken his nose and then trod on it.

Nightfall. I would have to be extra careful now.

I was so preoccupied with looking up for Beautifly and Ninjask, and avoiding all the piles of dead leaves in case of Shroomish that I totally forgot about looking _in front_ of me. I tripped over a vine, sending myself sprawling to the ground and bruising my arms on the jungle floor.

_Shit._

By the light of the moon, I saw a shadow loom over me.

_Double Shit._ I was definitely panicking now.

I felt a vine curl around my leg and tugged me up. My view suddenly changed from one of the jungle floor to the gigantic (in comparison to me) Victreebel holding me up. Or rather, the Victreebel that was going to dip me into the bubbling pool of acid that made up most of its body under its leaf. _Triple Shit._

_Victreebel. Grass type. What are Grass types weak to? Shit. Fire. Of course it would be fire. And I don't have any freaking FIRE!_

In desperation, I tried Natural Gift again. Obviously, as I wasn't draining any power from anything I was holding (that was why Natural Gift required to little energy to perform; it used the energy from another item to strike), it didn't do anything. By now, I was in full-blown panic mode, flailing from side to side.

_I DO NOT WANT TO DIE!!! I'M GOING TO BE DIGESTED ALIVE! I NEED FIRE!!_ which was, obviously, the one element I couldn't use.

Stopping my mental screaming, I focussed again on the situation at hand, only to find out in horror that I was now barely inches away from the bubbling acid in the Victreebel's acid pool. Time seemed to slow down. It usually does that whenever I'm going to die. Obviously, this didn't help me one bit and I descended back into panic mode again.

_FIRE I NEED FIRE NOW DIGESTED ACID POOL INTESTINES VICTREEBEL FIRE NOW NEED FIRE EATEN GORE ALIVE PAIN FIRE FIRE LIVE FOREST ZAINUL FIRE ACID SHIT BLOOD _

I don't know when I stopped the crazy thoughts and started actually shouting.

In my half-crazed with panic state, I actually started hallucinating.

I thought I that I saw a horrible grinning face with red eyes was staring at me with an evil grin on its face. And I was looking at the _acid _inside the Victreebel. By then, I was too far gone to feel fear at its horrific visage.

In my delirium, everything became possible. I actually thought that me breathing fire was not a technical impossibility. I sucked in my breath, imagined the fire that by now would have surely burned through my stomach if it had been real, and spat out a Flamethrower.

_That horrible leering face in the acid vanished in a cone of glorious red flame, igniting the Victreebel as I emerged, triumphant, laughing manically at the entire forest before proceeding to burn it down all around me while laughing manically…_

Which, of course, didn't happen.

Instead, what came out was a few pathetic sparks of green flame, surprising me so much that I snapped out of my full-panic mode. Thankfully, those pathetic sparks of green fire were enough to ignite the extremely volatile acid, and the Victreebel literally _exploded_, showing everything nearby with gore and bodily fluids, and burning with a faint green glow, the few remaining solid pieces of the ex-Victreebel.

That glow was not even visible in the dark jungle. Dark that is, if not for the inferno that my own "fire" had created.

_For every action there is an equal and opposite force_._. I was almost right on top of that acid._ _Shit._

I caught the explosion full-bodied, as I had been practically right inside the Victreebel. Fortunately, I wasn't caught inside the inferno, (that would have been terribly ironic, to be killed by the "fire" that had saved me), but rather flung out of the Victreebel into the air, possibly breaking a rib when I hit a tree. Not to mention, I was burnt all over.

If this were normal fire, I would have been scorched black. All over. But this, being some unnatural sort of fire, it settled for burning my _soul_. I swear, it was like the fire was burning me from the inside out, slowly, making sure I could feel every single piece of flesh that it charred.

While I couldn't see any visible flames on me, mainly because my defeated body had already collapsed to the ground, inside, it felt like I was still burning, and would forever.

Then, to add insult to injury, the rest of the Victreebel descended.

As my vision dimmed, and the pain thankfully fading, I saw by the light of fire the Victreebel starting to close in, and another face, slightly different this time, also with red eyes, staring at me high up in the trees.

_ This is where it ends._

With that last thought, I thankfully fell into the dark depths of unconsciousness, one from which I fully expected never to wake from ever again.

"Hey."

"Yes?"

"They're going to eat him. Should we bother helping?"

"It's not so much eat as it is digesting. But I digress. Not many Treecko know Dragonbreath. We could use him."

"Yes. We could indeed. Let's."

There was a swoosh of wings, and a winged form swept down from the trees to shield the Treecko with its body with a green Protect, while a shadow flitted from enemy to enemy, with an appendage wreathed in flames. The Victreebel were burning before they even knew what hit them.

The Treecko was picked up by the winged being and carried out of the jungle. As they walked through the jungle, a Shroomish, tempted by the thought of easy prey, attempted to send a Leech Seed flying their way.

Before it had even travelled half the distance, it found its Leech Seed, along with its body, sliced in half. It gasped once, before its body slid apart, revealing, in the moonlight, the full glory of its insides still pumping blood through its system, unaware that it was leaking out of its body, before the bones collapsed on themselves, leaving the two halves to slump onto the undergrowth.

As the forest went silent, the winged form with two pairs of red eyes made its way out of the jungle, carrying the prone form of the still unconscious Treecko. A pair of eyes was on its body, yet another pair on the place where its shadow ought to be.


	4. The Pain

**Chapter 4 – The Pain**

_Just lying down on the grass, unconcernedly, in the middle of the field. At peace with the world, I wish I could stay here forever. I felt content. Happy. If not for that numbing headache, everything would be … perfect._

Needless to say, I'm awakened from my pleasant dream by a pounding headache. Confusedly, I open my eyes and look around. Where am I? I don't remember lying down or going to sleep in the middle of a field. At night.

As Annabeth, that annoying little girl back at Littleroot always says, "It's dangerous to go out in the wild without any Pokémon to guard you! Wild Pokémon live in tall grass!"

I never actually bothered listening to her before, but now, at night, I feel that I should have taken her seriously. Wait, don't I already have a Pokémon?

I suddenly remember.

I was looking for my manual on Pokémon battling, which lists all the attacks that a Treecko should know, and is able to learn. Unfortunately, all that crap that Mom had packed inhibited my search, forcing me to search through my backpack slowly.

Then, I was distracted by a bright flash of light, and when I looked up, I noticed a giant green object flying towards me.

I heard a sickening crunch and felt something hard hit my face before I blacked out.

By the full moon, I see that I am now covered in blood. My nose hurts, and is probably broken. Alone in the thick grass at night, I can only hope that there are people nearby, or that wild Pokémon do not come find me.

It is a futile hope. I realise that my blood will draw the wild Pokémon to me as honey will draw Combee. My only hope is to get to someone that can help me.

I pick myself up from the ground as fast as I can, wincing when moving my facial muscles sends a twinge of pain through my head.

A howl sounds in the distance, echoed shortly after by many others, piercing the silence of the night. It is then I know that they have scented me.

I turn away from the direction of the howls, and begin a mad dash for the main path, fostering the blind hope that I can lose them in time. It is futile : the Bite Pokémon are known for their sense of smell.

It is already too late. I can hear their paw steps behind me. Nonetheless, I keep running, even as a Tackle sends me flying forward to crash on the floor, near the edge of a route that I recognize, that I know leads to Petalburg City.

If I survive this night, I will surely be found sooner or later by someone. This thought crosses my mind as the Poochyena start to come closer, growling all the time, egged on by the Mightyena. They gradually grow braver, coming to nip at my back.

_Pain. That is all I feel now. My entire back is being bitten by the Poochyena and Mightyena, and they are getting braver at my lack of response. It is my hope that someone will have heard the howling and come, although I feel there is no chance of that happening.. _

_As the Mightyena finally begin to rip off chunks of my flesh, I find the strength to scream, a scream that is suddenly cut short by an incisor across my throat, followed by my swift descent into unconsciousness._

His mutilated, bloody and broken body would not be found until the next day.


	5. Team Rockets' Rockin'

**Chapter 5 – Team Rocket's Rockin'**

_I was back in the jungle that existed only in my dreams again. This time, I was a Grovyle, still leaping from tree branch to tree branch faster than I ever could as a Treecko, before I became bored, and found a small clearing to sit in._

_ Closing my eyes, I relax against a boulder, only to be startled by a faint voice, whispering in my ear. Obviously, there was nothing there._

_ ´Watch your tail. You've forgotten something about it.´_

_ I look at my tail. There is nothing seemingly interesting about it. It's just shaped like a leaf. Obviously my tail is useful, although it isn't the weapon it used to be as a Treecko. I dismiss this voice as one of those things that happen whenever you're alone in your mind for too long. _

_ I shift my focus back to my memories, relieving what had happened in the jungle that night. I'm totally sure that those delusions of me breathing out red fire were false, but the green fire… That's another matter. There's also the matter of who saved me, but I'm sure that will be resolved. Eventually, anyway. _

_ Although most grass moves have a certain greenish tint to them, that move can't have been of the grass type, as then the acid wouldn't have been affected. _

_ A greenish tint makes it either a grass, flying or … dragon? typed attack. _

_Flying and grass are definitely out of the question, so…Are Treeckos supposed to know dragon-like attacks? I've heard of Sceptiles using Dragon Pulse, so I suppose Treeckos can use some draconic attacks. Cool._

_I hope I can repeat that again. Having some dragon-flame attack in my arsenal would be useful._

_I try to pull off another of those dragon-fire attacks, concentrating on a mental image of fire burning inside me. I attempt to spit out the fire, but predictably, nothing happens. How disappointing._

As if by a mental call, I awakened, and found myself lying on a soft mattress. Nice. I appeared to be alone, although I could distinguish the scent of another Pokémon having been here recently. And it smelt of… sand.

No one appeared to be in the room. The room was lavishly decorated, if a bit old fashioned, with silk curtains and long draperies hanging unused. The window was shuttered. The furniture was all wooden, with intricate carvings of the letter "D" on them. The door was locked securely with a rather ostentatious keyhole in its side.

My gaze went to the desk, where a letter labelled "TREECKO, OPEN THIS" lay.

I was no Alakazam, but even I thought that referred to me.

Inside was some sort of handheld thing. It had a black screen, with a small pad on it. It looked like it was some sort of panel.

I gingerly poked it with a finger. The screen flashed white.

It depicted a scene of a flower-filled meadow filled with many Bellosom dancing.

_What the heck is this?_

The image suddenly shifted to a pair of glowing red eyes on screen, standing out against the rest of the screen, which was black. How cliché. Still better than those dancing Bellosom though.

**´Treecko." **The voice intoned. **"I hope you are well. I am not able to be there in person. In return for saving your life, we demand that you help us. It is simple. You have twenty-four hours to escape the mansion you are in. If you succeed, you are free. If not, you are ours to … play … with. That is all. Muahahahahahaha!"**

That totally fake evil laugh was cut short as the short transmission was abruptly cut off.

_On the rooftop of the huge mansion…_

A Flygon snickered. "I just Love doing the evil laugh. Muahahahahaha!"

The nearby Gengar rolled his eyes. "You do it too much. I think even that Treecko would have known it was fake."

"_That evil laugh sounded soo fake. Anyway, better start finding a way out of here. I'm definitely not going to become some crazy Pokémon's toy."_

With that out of the way, I started to comb my way around the room. Windows were definitely out. I definitely couldn't break open metal shutters with my bare hands, or even my tail. I suppose I could smash the wooden furniture if I really had to, but I couldn't see what that would help me achieve.

That clichéd laugh and the stereotyped "evil villain" eyes had already proved to me that that Pokémon was adhering to typical stereotyping. Why not take another step and put something _under the bed_? That would be extremely typical. Either that, or right below the table.

_Up on the rooftops again…_

"You know Sebby, I think the Treecko's probably found your key by now. It's so freaking obvious! It was RIGHT UNDER THE BED for goodness sake! That was seriously too obvious!"

"That's the wrong key."

"That won't FREAKING MATTER! HE'LL JUST CHECK UNDER THE TABLE!"

_Whoever hid this key sure was a retard. Did he really think I wouldn't check under the bed?_

The key broke in the lock as Sufi inserted it in.

_ Pfft. Complications. I'll just look under the table next. Wow, it really IS here._

The door swung open noisily as Sufi inserted and turned the key.

_Whoever placed those keys there sure suffered a severe lack of imagination._

The door opened out into a corridor with no doors except for one at the far end. This was going to be easy. I walked down the corridor, admiring the smooth texture of the wooden floor beneath me. When I reached the door, I reached for the handle, only to find there wasn't any. How was I supposed to get it open? To make things worse, I turned around to find myself facing a smooth steel wall. That definitely wasn't there when I walked down the corridor. Shit.

"Don't panic, Treecko. We want to _help_ you." The voice came from a metal speaker fixed on the ceiling.

I wasn't too convinced.

"Now, just think. You're trapped in a room with a door. That door is made out of wood. By the way, the other walls are at least a foot thick. You have no hope of escaping unless you pull off a Dragonbreath, and you're probably going to burn yourself if you do that."

"What?" How did the speaker know that I had the potential to do the dragon move? Even though I couldn't access it at will yet. That meant that the speaker had to have either been the one who saved me from the fire, or was some super-stalker that had watched me being rescued. I thought that it was the one who had saved me.

"And, you probably won't be able to break the door, even with your tail, so you just have to find a way to weaken it. Remember, more than a day and you're ours! You only have… twenty two and a half hours left! Have fun!"

_ That's it, I guess._ I dedicated myself to focussing on the door and attempting to draw energy out of it. Obviously, I wasn't very successful. I tried several times, envisioning energy being siphoned out of the door and into me, but that just didn't work.

"You sure you're doing this the right way?"

"Yes, once he gets desperate he's sure to use Absorb. Let's give him a little shock."

Back in the room, a mechanical voice suddenly intoned from nowhere.

"Treecko, you only have fifteen minutes left. Have fun!"

_Oh shit!_

In desperation, I intensified my envisioning of beads of energy draining out of the door and flying to me. Unfortunately, it wasn't working. And I was getting a headache. In anger, I punched the door. Hard.

It all happened in an instant. I felt myself becoming stronger, and I could see green balls of energy flowing from the door into my hand. Awesome!

In my surprise, I just stared as I kept draining energy from the door. When the flow stopped, the door was so brittle I could have smashed through it with a Tackle. I felt totally reenergized, like I had just woke up after a Rest. I busted through the previously nigh-unbreakable door easily, feeling the warmth of the sunlight on my skin again. How refreshing.

I sped towards the forest in the distance, revelling in my renewed freedom.

"That wasn't twenty-four hours, that was FOUR hours!" shouted a Gengar.

"Relax, Bryan, it worked, didn't it? Even if it didn't, we'd have another mindless slave. I make it that this one would have been A-82?" a Flygon calmly replied.

"Wasn't that just cutting it a little close? If he'd had a better track of time he'd have realised you were messing around."

"That wouldn't have happened, and even if it did, he'd still have to break down that door or face us anyway. And, I know you were messing around with his head, making him more worried."

"I hate it when you know things like that."

"I know. That's probably why I do it sometimes."


End file.
